ANT/PISMIRE

9th March 2024

Photo Credit: Maltaguy1 (Getty Images), CANVA

QUOTATION

We’ll set thee to school to an ant to learn that there’s no

labouring i’ th’ winter. All that follow their noses are led by their

eyes but blind men, and there’s not a nose among twenty

but can smell him that’s stinking.

FOOL: King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4

ANT/PISMIRE (Black Ant: Lasius niger)

Ants were considered ‘good', ‘hard-working’ insects and an example to instruct good practice in human communities. Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1, complains that he is ‘nettled and stung with pismires’ when he hears what is happening with Bolingbroke. Pismire is an older name for Ant and is often used interchangeably with Ant.

In the Geneva Bible the Ant or Pismire is used as an example of good living and labour: “Go to the pismire, O sluggard: behold her ways and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6). The Ant is held up as a model of industry and forward planning in the Physiologus, an influential text of the Medieval period. Thomas Muffet’s late 16th century entomologist is also highly complementary about Ants: “often do I exceedingly commend the wit and ingenuity of the pismire, and prefer her prudence before that of men…They have Officers of all sorts, as Purveyours for Corn, Gleaners, Storers, Yeoman of the Larden, Householders, Carpenters, Masons, Arch-workers, pioners; for such is the vertue and skill of every one, that each Ant knowes what is needful to be done, and willingly doth his best to help the Commonwealth.”

Not all Ants sting. The Black Ant and the Formicine Ants do not sting, although the Red or Southern Wood Ant (Formica rufa) can spray formic acid in defence. The Myrmicine Ants are the UK’s Stinging Ants. Black Ants are one of the more common UK species. They live in colonies of thousands with one queen ant.

More Information

Buglife: Black Ant

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Geneva Bible 1599 edition: accessed via Biblegateway.com

Muffet, T. Theatre of Insects (published as part of Topsell, E. A History of Four-footed Beasts, accessed via Archive.org)

Natural History Museum: Ants swap spit to help them live for longer.

Wildlife Trusts: Southern Wood Ant